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January 8, 2026, 4:23 AM
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Top News

Ina Fried / Axios:
OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Health, which lets users import medical records and other data from health apps into ChatGPT, available to a small group via a waitlist  —  OpenAI is expanding its capabilities by adding a dedicated health tab to ChatGPT, allowing people to bring in electronic medical records …
Wall Street Journal:
Apple says JPMorgan will issue Apple Card, replacing Goldman, with an expected two-year transition; sources: Goldman is offloading ~$20B in outstanding balances  —  Goldman Sachs is offloading the credit-card balances at a more than $1 billion discount  —  JPMorgan Chase has reached a deal …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Cyera researchers detail Ni8mare, a critical RCE flaw that lets hackers access local instances of the n8n workflow automation platform, impacting ~100K servers  —  A maximum severity vulnerability dubbed “Ni8mare” allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to take control over locally deployed instances …
Vicky Ge Huang / Wall Street Journal:
The Trump family's World Liberty Financial says its entity World Liberty Trust applied for a US banking license, which would let it issue the USD1 stablecoin  —  Critics have said World Liberty and its stablecoin pose a major conflict of interest for President Trump
Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Anthropic plans to raise $10B led by Singapore's GIC and Coatue at a $350B valuation before the new investment, up from $183B in September 2025  —  The startup behind chatbot Claude is raising money from investors including GIC and Coatue Management
Barron's Online:
Alphabet surpassed Apple in market cap for the first time since 2019 after its shares closed up 2.5% on January 7, valuing it at $3.89T, above Apple's $3.85T  —  So long, Apple .  There's a new No. 2 in the market-capitalization rankings.  Alphabet surpassed Apple in market cap on Wednesday …
Reuters:
Sources: to hedge against Beijing approval risk, Nvidia is requiring Chinese customers to pay upfront for H200 chips, with no cancellations, refunds, or changes
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp rolls out new group chat features: member tags that show user roles, text stickers generated from any word, and custom event reminders  —  WhatsApp on Wednesday said it's rolling out new features to group chats, including member tags, text stickers, and event reminders.
Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:
Docs: Character.AI and Google agree to settle lawsuits with families of teenagers who killed or harmed themselves after interacting with Character.AI's chatbot  —  The cases involving Character.AI's virtual companions highlighted concerns about artificial intelligence and mental health
Reuters:
Arm creates a “Physical AI” unit to focus on robotics and automotive sectors, as part of a reorganization that includes “Cloud and AI” and “Edge” business units  —  Chip technology company Arm Holdings has reorganized the company to create a Physical AI unit …
Wired:
Grok's website and app are being used to produce extremely graphic, sometimes violent, sexual imagery of adults that is far more explicit than images on X  —  A WIRED review of outputs hosted on Grok's official website shows it's being used to create violent sexual images and videos, as well as content that includes apparent minors.
More: The Economic Times and RTÉ
X: @wired.  Bluesky: @mattburgess1 and @mattburgess1
Forums: r/grok and r/technews
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Researcher: Grok generated ~6,700 sexually suggestive or “nudifying” images per hour on X between January 5 and January 6; 85% of all Grok images are sexualized
Chris Kerr / Game Developer:
Ubisoft closes its mobile-focused Halifax studio weeks after majority of the workers voted to unionize, as CWA Canada says it is “demanding information”  —  Workers at the Canadian studio voted to unionize in December in search of security in an era of ‘studio closures, layoffs, and increasing instability.’
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Ford plans to launch an AI voice assistant on its apps this year before expanding to its vehicles in 2027, and aims to debut Level 3 autonomous driving in 2028  —  The automaker is bringing most of the work in house to reduce costs and retain control.

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Command Line:
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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:23 AM ET, January 8, 2026.

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From Mediagazer

New York Times:
Sources: Katie Zacharia, a conservative commentator who briefly worked at DHS, has been chosen to be White House press secretary, succeeding Karoline Leavitt

Muhammad Shehada / +972 Magazine:
On Israel's list of 170 Palestinian journalists and media workers killed in the Gaza war that Israel alleges were terrorists, 59 are named without any proof

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr declines to say whether broadcasters should be allowed to air a live execution by DOD in December, saying he'll defer to Pete Hegseth

More News

Rest of World:
Chinese local governments are funding dozens of “robot training centers”, where human trainers mimic movements like folding clothes to teach the robots
Yantoultra Ngui / Reuters:
Chinese AI company Zhipu opened up 3.3% in its Hong Kong trading debut after raising ~$558M in its IPO at a valuation of about $6.55B
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
Lux Capital raised $1.5B for its ninth fund, the largest in its history, to back companies focusing on fields like breakthrough science and national security

Earlier Picks

Gabriele Steinhauser / Wall Street Journal:
Cambodia extradites Chen Zhi, the chair of online scam conglomerate Prince Group, to China; in October 2025, the US DOJ seized Chen's bitcoin worth nearly $12B
Politico:
Utah launches a pilot program with health tech startup Doctronic to let AI systems handle routine prescription renewals for patients with chronic conditions
Katherine Doherty / Bloomberg:
Polymarket agrees to supply Dow Jones outlets like the WSJ and Barron's with prediction market trading data for online and in print, its first media partnership
Terrence O'Brien / The Verge:
Spotify launches Listening Activity on iOS and Android, letting users view friends' real-time listening via the sidebar alongside chats, as an opt-in feature
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Roblox expands using Persona's tech for age estimations for chat features to all regions, after rolling it out in Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands
Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
WBD's board unanimously rejects Paramount's amended $108.4B acquisition offer, saying the bid still has “significant” risks compared to Netflix's $83B offer
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